Get a survey. I did. My surveyor gave my boat a fair market value of $7800. I've seen Wanderers listed for sale within the past couple years at $10,000 to $15,000. I saw one sell within the last year for, IIRC, about $12,000.

Seems to me that if it's in good condition, $6,000 would be a very good price.

It is a well-built boat with a very solid, heavy, sturdy hull. My bilge is very dry - I have yet to have enough water in it for the bilge pump to even pump it out. There's never more than a couple cups of water in there. (Hope I didn't just jinx myself saying that).

If you have to have a gas engine in your sailboat, the A4 is the one to have. I've got an A4 in mine and have been giving myself and education on them - sign yourself up at the Moyer Marine site - Moyer Marine Atomic 4 Community - Powered by vBulletin - where you'll find every possible thing you could ever want to know about the A4 engine. It's a great little engine and practically bulletproof.

Simply put, $6600 for good old well-built cruiser like the Wanderer is a very good price, unless there is something tragically wrong with it - which you will hopefully find out with a survey. I looked at boats for about a year or more before pulling the trigger on my Wanderer and have no real regrets about it so far. Everything I have read about the Wanderer has been very positive and my more experienced sailing buddies all say it's a very good boat - which my experience so far bears out.

Best of luck and let us know how it works out - I haven't seen many other Wanderers out there. Pearson made only about 177 of them, and I'd love to know what happened to them all.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do, than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
- Mark Twain

The right answer is very dependent on the condition of the boat. If the boat has decent sails, and the engine is well maintained, has decent compression and has been converted to FW cooling, then $5,000 sounds like a good price for a Wanderer which was one of the better sailing centerboard boats of this size and era.

Under no circumstances should you buy this boat without a survey. Boats of this age can easily have problems that are several times more expensive to than the boat would ever be worth.

In terms of delivering the boat, depending on where the boat is located on the south shore, I would suggest that if you are experienced sailors and you pick your weekend it should not be all that hard to sail from the south shore of Long Island to Connecticut. Growing up sailing on Long Island Sound my family generally sailed until the weekend after Thanksgiving. I would plan it this way. I would plan to sail the boat back, but budget to ship her home or hire a delivery skipper. If the weather cooperates, sail her home. If not the you are stuck paying to move her.

Shoe string, show string.
JeffH always gives a thoughtful answer.
I have a Tartan 27' from 1967 that is a similar design: center board, A4, well cared for. When we bought her we did have it surveyed. If I knew then what I know now I would have inspected the chain plates, center board pennant and center board. These are just some of the items that can require fixing on boats of this vintage.
I like the look of the older Pearsons and Tartans too. I am a sucker for the 'shippy' look they have. You won't regret buying this old classic plastic sailor. The good news is JeffH did not have any negative comments on the Pearson Wanderer and he is not shy about sharing negative comments if he has one to make.
Go for it.
My boat lives on a shoe string budget too. That just means I have learned to do as much of the maintenance as possible myself. The A4 is pretty easy to work on if it has reasonable access.
Enjoy and good luck.

These look like really neat boats. Not sure how they sail, but if you like how they sail and this one is in good condition, $7K seems a steal to me.

I guess a boat that old is likely due for a bunch of maintenance?

I can speak only for mine, and it sails great.

As far as whether it's due for maintenance, that depends entirely on how much maintenance the prior owner has done. Just because it's 42 years old doesn't mean it's in need of maintenance, if the prior owner has taken excellent care of it.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do, than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
- Mark Twain

As far as whether it's due for maintenance, that depends entirely on how much maintenance the prior owner has done. Just because it's 42 years old doesn't mean it's in need of maintenance, if the prior owner has taken excellent care of it.

True enough. I have seen a Pearson Vanguard (even older model than the Wanderer) that was pristine and gorgeous, you had the sense nothing had been left unattended, functional or cosmetic. They wanted a fair bit more than $5K for it, but it was probably worth every penny

South shore of LI, presumably in the Great South Bay? And you're paying $1600 to have it trucked up to CT?

That's the only part I'd call madness. If the boat works, if the engine and sails work, it will be an easy 3 days to bring the boat home. First day, either up the East River and into the sound, or around the east end and into the sound. Second day crossing the sound and probably hitting the river, third short day home. All you need is the weather window and there's some fine saiing in November, you just need to consider a watch cap, warm footwear, warm underwear, and gloves. Thin neoprene gloves in case there's a cold rain, but hopefully you don't need to go into that.
Of course, that all presumes someone has made sure the boat is safe and reliable--and I'd rather invest that up front in a survey and engine mechanic in any case, because that needs to be known no matter where the boat is or will be going. If the PO is willing to help you sail it home--that's probably a sign that he has some faith in the condition of the boat.

With all due respect to Mike, sails from 1979 are either shot or haven't been used. Even the best of canvas stretches out of shape, chafes, degrades from UV exposure. I had a friend with an old Chrysler wagon that ran just fine without any maintenance. Then we changed the spark plus and found that two of the original six actually had been consumed by the engine. With six all new plugs, it ran one hell of a lot better. Everything is relative.

31 year old sails? "Homey don't think so." Not if you've been SAILING with them.

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